‘Fast X’ ending explainer: What to expect from ‘Fast and Furious 11’
Fast X delivered the pulse-racing action, gorgeous cars, bonkers plot twists, and star-stuffed ensemble that Fast & Furious fans have come to demand from this intense franchise. But it also dealt us an ending stacked with cliffhangers.
Who lived? Who died? Who might be coming back for the — yet untitled — Fast & Furious 11?
Let’s drive deep into spoiler territory to find answers to Fast X‘s most pressing questions.
What happened in Fast X?
Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his big, car-loving family were threatened by the nihilistic fashionista Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa, being the most in the best way). You might think Dante is new to the escapades of the Toretto clan, but Fast X‘s opening sequence ushers us all back to Fast Five for a revealing retcon.
Remember when Dom and his crew hauled a gigantic safe out of a Rio de Janeiro police station, then dragged it through the streets, causing massive collateral damage, incredibly no civilian casualties, and epic action spectacle? Well, that heisted vault belonged to Fast Five villain Hernan Reyes (Joaquin de Almeida), a crime boss who had the Brazilian metropolis in the palm of his bloody hand. In the film’s finale, he’d not only lost his money to Dom, but also his life to cowboy cop Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson). However, Fast X reveals that ahead of his death, Hernan had tasked his violent but devoted son Dante to bring Dom’s family down.
Killing them isn’t enough. Death is a mercy. The Reyes way is to make their enemies suffer. So, Dante destroys the family’s reputation by framing Dom, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), Han (Sung Kang), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) with his terrorist bombing of Rome.
From there, Dante separates Dom from his family, getting Letty locked up in an Agency black site (in Antarctica!) and pitching the rest of the Rome crew literally underground (into the sewers, en route to London). Meanwhile, Dom’s siblings Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Jakob (John Cena) rush to keep their nephew Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry), aka Little B, out of the hands of Dante and The Agency, as no one can be trusted outside the family.
What happens to Mia?
After Mia battles a bunch of invading agents at Dom’s longtime Los Angeles home, she puts Little B in the care of Uncle Jakob. From there, she’s out of Fast X, presumably going to check in on her offscreen family, which includes Brian O’Conner (previously played by the late Paul Walker) and their kids.
Is Brian O’Conner in Fast X?
Nope. Unlike in Furious 7 and F9, there are no camera tricks or body doubles bringing Brian into this adventure. Instead, much like the Duke on Bridgerton, Brian is alive and well — just well away from the action.
Plotwise, fans might assume that to protect their family, Brian has used his former FBI skills to be sure the kids are firmly off the grid, well out of Dante’s grasp and even the view of the surveillance tech God’s Eye.
Where’s Abuelita Toretto?
Shortly after Fast X introduces Rita Moreno as Dom’s adoring grandmother, the character vanishes from the movie. She too seems to have found a spot outside of Dante’s vision for devastation — for now, anyway.
Maybe Mia picked her up and high-tailed it to safety? Maybe we’ll see them all reunited in Fast & Furious 11? Here’s hoping.
Is Jakob Toretto dead?
After serving as a scowling villain to his long-lost brother in F9, Jakob has resurfaced as a trusted uncle in the Toretto family. He joins the battle to protect Little B, fighting assailants with his sister Mia, then spiriting the kid out of his bathroom hiding place (real talk: How do the Torettos NOT have a panic room?!) and into his underwhelming but serviceable vehicle. It’s equipped with a tape deck for jamming out with his nephew, and a glider disguised as a kayak that allows him to check it as luggage on an airline without incident.
Uncle Jakob and Little B have a terrific side plot, peppered with great escapes and bonding over Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations.” But once Dante gets the kid in his clutches, Jakob — whose cannon car’s gas tank has been compromised — sacrifices himself in a kamikaze mission, barreling into approaching enemies and clearing a path for Dom to rescue the boy.
Now, the explosion of this pile-up is pretty massive. And — is often the case in this franchise — the hero’s corpse is not shown post-kablooey. Tragic music implies he is dead and gone. But consider the returns of Han, Letty, and — well — you know who. Don’t count Jakob out for whatever might come next.
What happens to Letty and Cipher?
Thanks to some help from The Agency’s rebel, Tess (Brie Larson), Letty is chucked into the black site’s infirmary, where she reluctantly teams up with Dom’s enemy, Cipher (Charlize Theron). After a brutal brawl, this duo snowsuits up to trek across a seemingly endless terrain of ice and cold to a cliff, where —at movie’s end — a submarine surfaces with a familiar face aboard. (We’ll get there.)
Now, what does this mean for the next film? Presumably that Letty, who has well-earned trust issues, is poised to battle back against Dante’s villainy with a foe she utterly loathes. It should be fun, as Theron’s smirk and savage sense of line delivery brings zing when she says things like, “The enemy of my enemy is you.”
That devilish Dante isn’t just good at tearing families apart. Look at him bringing people together (to kill him)!
What happens to Tess and Isabel?
These two actually have a lot in common!
Both new additions are related to previously established characters. Tess (Brie Larson) is the daughter of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), a former Agency leader who’s gone underground and first appears in Furious 7. Isabel (Daniela Melchior) is the younger sister of Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), who was introduced in Fast Five but killed by Cipher in Fate of the Furious — after she bore Dom’s son, Little B.
In Fast X, both women make friends with the Torettos, sharing a beer or tear respectively. Then, they get drawn into a showdown on a bridge, tying Dante and Dom back to where they met (as the former notes with a maniacal whimsy). There, both women walk away, limping but alive.
These ladies sit out the climax. However, one can shoot, and the other can drive. So expect to see them come back for more action.
Where did Shaw go?
After paying off the mid-credit F9 scene that showed Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) roughly reconnecting with Han (Sung Kang), a man he’s once nearly murdered, the British bad boy got into a red sports car and…set off to parts unknown.
Presumably, he’s out to save his mother, Queenie (Helen Mirren), as Dante is threatening the dear ones of Dom’s crew. So, it seems certain that when we pick back up with him in the presumed sequel, he’ll be battling for his mum the way he did for that baby in Fate of the Furious, relentlessly and with plenty of style. And maybe Queenie will get some punches in, too?
Did Han, Ramsey, Tej, and Roman die in that plane crash?
No. I mean, that’s not been confirmed officially. But let’s think about what we saw. The crew was planning to swoosh in and save Dom and Little B from their perilous position on top that dam. Then, Dante intervenes, and boom! Their plane is bombed, and it seems to crash off in the distance. Now, in many an action movie that would mean death was quite possible. But this is the Fast fam. Death scenes are often not what they seem.
Since Furious 7, Ramsey has become an appreciated member of the crew, bantering with Tej — when he’s not bickering with Roman. All three of them are beloved by fans, so if they were going to be bombed out of this franchise, it would be in a moment more prolonged and emotionally devastating. Like when Han was blown up in Tokyo Drift or when Gisele slo-mo fell to her death in Fast & Furious 6. Speaking of…
Will Han and Gisele reunite?
They damn well better! Han can’t have died in that plane, because no Fast screenwriter would dare tempt fans with the return of Gisele only to kill him off before their romance could reignite!
The chemistry between Sung Kang and Gal Gadot has been electrifying since their flirtations in Fast Five. Arguably, their romance might have even been more enthralling to fans because we knew Han was doomed to die in Tokyo, as we saw in the released out-of-sequence Tokyo Drift. So, when they ride off into the sunset in Fast Five, and he suggests Madrid instead of Japan’s capital, audiences roared with joy at their new favorite ship! But then came Fast & Furious 6, which seemed to kill off Gisele.
There was a dark period (Fast 7-8), where this love story seemed as dead as its lovers. But then Han was resurrected in F9, and now Gisele has risen like a phoenix driving a submarine through Antarctica. Improbable! Impossible! WHO CARES!?
Han was just beginning to get on the dating apps. He was ready to love again, and now Gisele is going to walk back into his life as casually as he strolled into the den of his sworn enemy Shaw? The DRAMA! THE MUSIC PUMPING! THE KISS!
Fast 11 (or whatever they’ll call it) better give us a steamy reunion between these two VERY ALIVE lovers, or we riot.
Are Dom and Little Brian going to die?
I mean, on the one hand, no way. On the other, Vin Diesel has teased that the next sequel will be the last. And killing Dom would be one hell of a way to make that so.
Having said that, there’s no way that Dom and his son will be drowned by that exploding dam. How will they get out? No clue. But have you seen what this guy survives? In a world in which two helicopters hooked to a speeding car can be used as a weapon against kidnapping, never underestimate Dom.
Did Dante win?
Well, the game’s not over. Consider the conclusion of Fast X as halftime.
But the guy’s got a lot going for him. For one thing, he has Dom in between a rock and a wall of water. He’s flung the crew around the globe in various crises and crashes — and stolen their money to cut them off from easy aid.
Dante has nothing to lose, as the only thing he cares about is mayhem and manicures. He’s got a mole on his side in Aimes (Alan Richtson), which explains why The Agency has been such a pest this go ’round, and he’s openly baiting Hobbs at the end of the film. But best of all — for Dante and us — he’s survived his first Fast movie, perfectly poised for a sequel.
As discussed in our review, Momoa has made Dante into a distinctive villain. In his attitude, attire, and personal philosophy, he’s everything Dom is not. Flamboyant, willfully deadly, and determined to destroy the legacy that’s been built for 20 years and counting. As the Fast franchise threatens to come to an end, this villain questions what kind of mark this crew can leave behind. This means that a sequel where they reduce him to a mark on the pavement could be their most satisfying victory yet.
Post credit explained: Will Hobbs come back for Fast & Furious 11?
The mid-credit promises the return of Dwayne Johnson, despite his reported feud with Fast & Furious leading man, Vin Diesel. In the scene, the massively muscle secret agent barges into Dante’s surveillance room, where he learns he’s a part of this menace’s master plan.
And it only makes sense. After all, his Luke Hobbs is the one who fatally shot Dante’s dad. If Dante nearly blew up the Vatican just to raze the reputation of the guy who stole from his father, what might he have planned for the man who killed the crime lord patriarch?
Pitting Hobbs, Dom, and all surviving (and resurrected) fam against this volatile villain should make Fast & Furious go out with its biggest bang yet.
Fast X is now in theaters.
